Sallustius Crispus, Opera, Florence, Filippo I Giunta, 1503, contemporary Florentine black morocco

Sallustius Crispus, Gaius. Hic erit, vt perhibent doctorum corda virorum, primus Romana Crispus in historia. Florence: Filippo I Giunta, 6 February 1503

The prefatory letter to Antonio di Matteo di Giovanni Canigiani is subscribed by Benedetto Riccardini, grammar teacher at the Florentine school of San Lorenzo (Robert Black, “Machiavelli and the grammarians: Benedetto Riccardini and Paolo Sassi da Ronciglione” in Archivio Storico Italiano, 173, 2015, pp. 427-482 (pp. 438,471-473: “Benedetto Riccardini’s prefaces to his Giunti editions”). The vita Sallustii by Pietro Crinito is printed for the first time. This was extracted from a large collection of biographies of historians and orators by Crinito (De historibus ac oratoribus) which was to remain unpublished and is now lost.

8vo (159 x 100 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a⁶ b-i⁸ k¹⁰: 82 leaves. Guide letters in initial spaces. (A few marginal wormholes and chips, intermittent light spotting and dampstaining.)

binding: Contemporary Florentine black morocco (166 x 106 mm), three blind fillets around sides, gilt cinquefoil at each corner, rectangular frame composed of repeated blind palmette tool flanked by three blind fillets, in center three large gilt lozenges arranged vertically and comprised of four arabesque tools, surrounded by gilt cinquefoil, four compartments with three raised bands, blind crosshatching in compartments, traces of four pairs of fabric ties, edges gilt and gauffered in a ropework pattern, vellum pastedowns and endleaves. (Textblock cracked in places, joints starting.)

provenance: Early unidentified owner, inscription "Questo libro e di Guido Venutelli" on upper flyleaf — Antoine-Augustin Renouard (1765-1853), ex libris — Boulouze & Antoine-Laurent Potier, Paris, 20 November-23 December 1854, lot 2769 — Charles W. Clark (1871-1933); The Library of Charles W. Clark (San Francisco 1922), VII, p.123 — Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia. acquisition: Purchased from John Fleming, New York, 1982. references: Renouard XXXIV/8; Edit16 28708; USTC 854232; Decia & Delfiol p. 67 no. 8